No losses for Alcatel in Romania

Following the recent personnel cutbacks in its US-based units, the French telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel on Thursday announced net losses of 3.1 billion euros in Q2.

It also announced it would lay off another 14,000 people by the end of the year, in an attempt to cut operational costs by more than one billion euros.

As they have previously said on various occasions, the representatives of the company in Romania claim the Romanian branch is safe from the negative effects of the entire telecommunications industry, caused by the US economy slowdown and by purchasing UMTS licenses mainly.

“This slowdown does not impact on the area where Romania is located, as neither is restructuring scheduled,” the company’s sales manager Emil Visloguzov told Ziarul Financiar.

Alcatel Romania may not extend part of the temporary contracts, depending on the orders for the production business, therefore personnel cutbacks are out of the question.” He added that Alcatel Romania estimates 122 million euros in 2001 turnover, compared with some 90 million registered last year.

Alcatel Romania chairman, Dan Bedros has recently said that the local branch will make the best of the opportunities the Romanian market provides and is to hire software specialists, mainly because of the incentives the specialists in the field are to receive.